Importance of Human Resources Department

For a business to thrive, it should be segmented into several departments. Each department should have distinct roles to play in achieving the objectives of the business. The departments should be structured according to certain business requirements and they will differ depending on the types of business being carried out. The activities of the departments should be coordinated to ensure the smooth running of the business and enable specialization and division of labor. This lowers unit costs and increases efficiency. The departments should have their own objectives to achieve apart from the general company’s objectives. Since each department has a number of employees, the managers should provide feedback and useful information to ensure that employees’ goals and targets are met. Some of the departments in a business organization include the human resource department, marketing, production, sales, customer service department, accounting and finance, distribution, administrative and management, legal department and information technology support department. This essay discusses the major departments within a business and their role in empowering the organization to meet its business goals.

Human resource department is responsible for formulating strategies which focuses on recruiting employees as well as supervising projects that promote the organizations’ wide productivity. Human resource departments mostly control the overall business operations. This makes the department a major component of an organization’s success in achieving its goals (Jackson, Schuler and Jiang, 2014, pp.21). Human resource department creates employee training programs where they first asses the employee training needs. This enhances employee skills hence increasing individual and organizational performance which greatly helps in achieving the business objectives. The department is also responsible for acquisition of employees that is through hiring and retention of the existing employees (Alfes, et al., 2013, pp.842). Human resource managers reduce the turnover and improve employee skills thus improving the overall firm production. The role and influence of marketing departments has received much attention in both the popular press and academic literature in recent years.

Marketing or promotion department also plays a major role in assisting the organization in achieving its goals. “The role and influence of marketing departments has received much attention in both the popular press and academic literature in recent years” (Wirtz, Tuzovic and Kuppelwieser, 2014, pp.172) Promotional methods such as advertising and personal selling are some of the best ways that companies can communicate with their target customer in order for them to know the services and product that a company is dealing with (Feng, Morgan and Rego, 2015, pp.17). Effective promotional and marketing activities will lead to profitability, long-term success, and growth in market shares of the firm. The marketing department function is to promote the business to generate sales that will help the company to thrive. The department is responsible for creating marketing strategies and arranging promotional campaigns and also monitoring their competitors’ activities. This will help them devise ways to improve their brand in order to maintain the sales. Promoting a firm’s product will increase its brand awareness, customer traffic, provide appropriate information about the products and build sales and profit, thus helping a company to achieve its objectives.

The Role of Marketing Department

Accounting and finance department manages the cash outflows and inflows of a business. The department is responsible for auditing, planning, accounting, organizing finances, and producing financial statements of a company. Where the company has needs beyond the daily working capital, the finance department has the mandate to advice and source long-term financing. The department works with managers to prepare the company’s budgets and forecast and provide a report on the progress throughout the year. This information can be useful in planning staffing levels, expansion, and cash needs and asset purchases (Ayambire, 2018, pp.1341). On the hand, the department also analyses the performance of a business by reviewing the firm’s financial records. The records enable the managers to assess how various expenses contributed to the operation of the business and make a decision on which business operation to grow and which one to downsize. More so, the finance and accounting department’s main objective is to attract capital and improve financial results of a company.

Another department that plays an important role in helping a company to achieve its objectives is the information technology support department. Due to globalization, information and computer systems have become an essential tool in today’s business world. Choosing the right technology will impact the success of the company positively (Chen, et al., 2014, pp.331). Technology is an essential tool in decision making. Organizations have to go through a detailed market research process that will help the management to make the right decisions. Market research can be done through Google analytics, online surveys, and even blogs. The internet technology is an effective tool for communication between managers and customers. It helps the organization to understand the level of satisfaction of their customers. Through the internet, the company is able to understand their customer demands, problems, and appropriate solutions (Trainor, et al., 2014, pp.1206). The organization may reach their customers and also employees through emails, member portals, and social media. Organizations mostly use customer relationship management systems to keep important data for understanding consumer behaviors and their future needs. Information technology also assists in the management of information systems which enable organizations to track sales data, productivity levels, and expenses. On daily basis, managers can track sales and react to numbers lower than expected through enhancing or reducing the cost of a product.

The customer service support department’s objective is to interact with customers and resolve support issues, answer questions, nurture relationships, and establish credibility. “Customer service is one of the key aspects of the offer to the customer of services, which essentially enables the company to differentiate its offers from competition” (Melovi?, et al., 2015, pp.803). The focus of this department is to give good service support to potential customers, the existing and new customers. Good customer relationship creates customer loyalty which leads to high profits. Alignment of organizational goals with customer service allows organizations to understand where they are short of providing service and ensure they fix the gaps. When customers are satisfied with the services they get, it results to organizations ensuring that their strategies are meeting the customers’ needs. Satisfied customers raise the market share of a company. Additionally, the companies should ensure that the needs of employees are not neglected (Chakravarty, Grewal and Sambamurthy, 2013, pp.981). Employees must not have the feeling that the organization only cares for its customers since this will demoralize the staff leading to poor customer service. The companies should use new technology to offer good customer service because of the high competition in the business world.

Accounting and Finance Department

A firm’s research and development department play an important in a product’s lifecycle. The department works closely with other departments like the production, sales, and other divisions. The department carries a new product research before making a decision on developing it. At this stage, production cost, product specifications and production time must be researched on well. In addition, the research should evaluate the need for the product. The department also makes research on how to update the existing products either through upgrading it or making potential changes on the product (Holliman and Rowley, 2014, pp.274). The department also carries out the quality checks on products created by the company since it has the knowledge of the specification and requirements of a particular project. This ensures that the firm has quality and standard products hence increasing the sales and assisting the company to cope with the stiff competition from other companies (Drechsler, Natter and Leeflang, 2013, pp.310). Besides, the department also analyses the products other companies are coming up with as well as upcoming trends in the industry. This helps the department in updating the products produced by the company. Research conducted by this department directs the future of the organization according to the information it provides and the goods it creates.

Administration and management is also an essential body in enabling an organization to meet its objectives. The office manager provides innovation that is finding unique, new, and better tactics for doing existing work. The administration of an organization enforces authority by directing office staff. Administrators, in turn, create an impact on their subordinates to work harmoniously to achieve hierarchical goals. Administration assists in target achievement by influencing people to understand the objectives and coordinate with their purpose in accomplishing these objectives (Shahiduzzaman and Alam, 2014, pp.127). In addition, it facilitates the control and coordination of office functions like, planning all the office exercise and coordinating different divisions to ensure there is a smooth flow of data from one section to another. It also maintains public relations by expanding generosity and improving advertisement. The unit manages complains and grievances from purchasers and the population at large. Administration assists an organization to put its resources to maximum utilization by controlling the staff on asset utilization (Bourne, et al., 2013, pp.1601). Additionally, it helps in maintaining efficiency in office to maintain productivity. It carries out duties like arranging, staffing, sorting out, organizing, controlling, and coordinating office with a distinct end goal of achieving the laid down objectives. 

The sales department plays an important role in any organization’s success. The department has the responsibility of generating revenue. The sales department has the responsibility to ensure that the products and services sold must generate profit (Buil, De Chernatony and Martinez, 2013, pp.119). It coordinates with the marketing department in product launching, brand awareness, among other functions. The department devices ways on how the product reaches the targeted customers. The department is obligated to do a market research on the recent production, pricing policies, and the competitors’ sales (Griffin, et al., 2013, pp.327). The department should also ensure that the products are well packed so that the products can reach the customers in good quality and form.

Information Technology Department

Conclusion

Each department discussed above plays an important role in the success of a business. Human resource department is the major asset in a business. The entire organization depends on the human resource department since it is has a role of recruiting the right personnel with the required skills, experience, and qualifications and it also determines the salaries and training the employees in an organization. On the other marketing and sales department and are closely related and should be well coordinated because effecting promotional and marketing activities lead to greater sales hence generating good profit and growth in the market shares. The accounting and finance department is responsible for auditing, accounting, planning, and organizing the finances of a company. The customer care department has the mandate to build good customer relationship which creates customer loyalty. The administration department handles the business decision making, planning, and financial review. Coordination of these departments brings about smooth operations and flow of information leading to the success of an organization.

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